Karmic Results from Thoughts

Karma is karma.
Thoughts have their own karmic cycle.
Actions have their own karmic cycle.

Generally, thoughts produce very subtle, short lived effects in our lives. Usually these are hardly discerned by us. If however a thought snowballs into something bigger, it can propel us to action. These thoughts prompt us to commit actions which have karmic results of their own. Thoughts are important and they determine the direction we go in. They are also the foundation of our actions and hence key to how we act later in life.

Usually, negative thoughts are kept in check by our sense of "right and wrong". Apart from the autistic people, we generally keep check on our feelings and don't say or do half the things we would want to. As a result, a lot of negative thoughts pass us over like impotent white clouds, casting nothing but a brief weak shadow. eg - We might feel angry, upset, depressed, or excited or lustful or jealous as a result of these thoughts, but nothing more than that. These emotions are the direct result of our thought’s karmas.

Some thoughts direct how we react to others. These have consequences of their own. We may love or hate someone and hence everything that person does is coloured by our original thought for that person. Some thoughts we deliberately act against - such as wish to harm someone who has upset us. Hence this leaves us with anger, fear, frustration - but no more than that.

Being kind and gracious, God says, unless you act out your bad thoughts, I will not punish you for it. BUT, your kind, generous thoughts, even if you don't act them out, I will give you credit for them (punya). Wanting us to think more and more on the positive side, God encourages us to do good by promising to give us positive rewards for thoughts as well as actions. Thoughts, subtle as they are, sow the seed of future karmas and they often direct our course in life.

eg – As a young man, Narayan Murti, founder of Infosys, was very sure he only wanted to work in an orphanage. That was what he wanted to do as he felt that was his way to contribute to the overall peace in the world.
Life, wife, work, kids all got in the way and from a socialist idealist, he became the global capitalist who broke through the glass ceiling and introduced Indian corporate giant to the West. BUT - the original seed of an altruistic aim - to help the orphans - was still there at the root of all his actions. So when his company became THE technology brand in India and the globe, he opened orphanages - not one – but several to fulfill his original dream.

So thoughts can flower into something HUGE.
And yes, thoughts are karmas too - on a subtle level.

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